Synopsis

Named One of the 10 Best Books of the Year byTheNew York Times Book Review

Named a Best Book of the Year by Newsweek, The Denver Post, BuzzFeed, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly

Named a "Must-Read" by Flavorwire and New York Magazine's "Vulture" Blog

A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant.

Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens—on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles—the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I'd die in the same bedroom I'd grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that've been there since '68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father's pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family's financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that's left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral.

Fueled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town's most famous resident—the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins—he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.

Buy the eBook

Price:

$10.99 CAD

Get
$5 off

(Save on your first purchase worth $5.01 or more)

You are in the Canada store

Not in Canada? Choose your country's store to see books available for purchase.

Life, past and Present

This novel needs to be read more than once to understand the message. It is not a simple or entirely funny but a timely read to reflect the times we live in.

by leronr howardon November 03, 2016

1 person found this review helpful

1 people found this review helpful

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Thanks for your feedback!

3.0

The sellout

Not a great read, I enjoyed the last half of the book more than the first. Either the writing got better of I've gotten more used to it. It was clear that the author tried to point out something, some kind of message. There were too many messages send, too many observations, too many characters on a mission to prove something that it blurred out what kind of message the author was actually sending.

by Annemiekeon May 10, 2016

0 person found this review helpful

0 people found this review helpful

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Thanks for your feedback!

1.0

So bad

I was supposed to read this book as part of a book club choice but after reading the first chapter I couldn't go on. I forced myself to read the second chapter just to give it a chance but I just couldn't understand one thing the writer was talking about. Horrible

by Mahaon April 20, 2017

0 person found this review helpful

0 people found this review helpful

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Thanks for your feedback!

4.0

Sellout, a literary satirical look at being black

This book is pure satire a more than a bit sarcastic. A reverse turn of the tables gets the reader thinking and actually come to understand what it's been like growing up black in America, even in the black community, people remind this young black man of what their community has endured for hundreds of years, that he should feel the guilt and shame of that the same way most African Americans do every day.

by Mary B.on October 31, 2016

0 person found this review helpful

0 people found this review helpful

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Thanks for your feedback!

5

Beautiful

One of the best books on race, or anything else, I've read in a long time. A hilarious book, but the humor belies the depth of insight to this piece. It expands on the works of Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates, just as important as those writers to the contemporary conversation on race. It also has a place in the American novel, a novel about growing up in the vein of Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint. It's just an essential modern novel.